1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to beverage containers, and, more particularly to an insertable beverage container for use with a conventional drinking drink cup for dividing the cup into a plurality of individual beverage containing cells thereby enabling different flavored beverages to be separately contained within, and consumed from, a single cup.
2. Description of Related Art
Beverage containers, such as cups, are commonly used in the consumption of beverages. Cups, such as the soda cup for example, are a well known drinking containers in common use throughout the world and are often used in drinking refreshing beverages such as soft drinks and the like. Disposable soda cups are typically formed from wax-coated paper, plastic, or expanded rigid polystyrene plastic known by the trademark Styrofoam. Although cups are available in a variety of sizes (i.e. large, medium and small) and may contain up to forty (40) fluid ounces of beverage or more, most cups are formed in a generally cylindrical, vertically tapered shape.
Consumers frequently purchase individual servings of soft drinks at any of a wide variety of retail locations such as restaurants, convenience stores, fast food stores, and movie theaters. Typically, the cup is filled with ice and a particular flavored beverage, such as Coca-Cola.RTM.. In many instances a plastic top or lid is secured about the rim of the cup and a drinking straw is inserted through a pre-formed opening in the lid. The cup, lid, and drinking straw provide consumers with low-cost drinking containers that are commonly disposed of after a single use.
There are, however, a number of inherent disadvantages associated with the use of conventional drinking cups. For example, plastic lids used with a conventional drinking cups can become dislodged if the cup is dropped thereby allowing the contents to spill out. Accordingly, soda cups placed in the hands of children, who consume a substantial amount of soft drinks, present a constant potential for spillage. In addition, since there are a wide variety of beverage flavors currently available, and, since soda cups have but a single beverage containing compartment, and thus are only able to hold a single beverage flavor at any one time, each person typically requires his or her own cup to filled with a particular beverage to satisfy his or her individual taste. Even if two people are willing to share a soft drink, the potential for passing germs, the common cold, and the like, make sharing, even among family members, a generally undesirable option. Furthermore, the large number of disposable soda cups used daily creates an equally large amount of waste that must be disposed of in landfills.
The background art reveals references generally directed to divided beverage containers. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,919,295, and 5,492,244, issued to Hitzler and Kim respectively, disclose cylindrical aluminum cans having individual fluid containing chambers therein. U.S. Pat. No. 5,405,030, issued to Frazier, discloses a dual-compartment drinking cup. The references of the background art do not reveal, however, an apparatus for use with a conventional soda cup for dividing the cup into a plurality of individual beverage containing compartments.
Accordingly, there exists a need for an apparatus for providing a soda cup with a plurality of individual beverage containing cells to accommodate different flavored beverages and to allow sharing of the beverages by individuals in a sanitary manner.